


Last game

by phoenixbird27



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 07:28:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4011091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixbird27/pseuds/phoenixbird27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine Daiki is alive, but letting life pass him by. Kuroko Tetsuya is dead, but trying to find what is keeping him from passing on amongst the living.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last game

**Author's Note:**

> This is just me pouring out all my feelings onto one document. Enjoy, haha. This work is somewhat inspired by angel beats.

Last game

 

I first saw him standing amongst a sea of people.  
He was wearing a crisp white shirt, and black basketball shorts; his hair a shocking yet pleasing sky blue and his eyes a pair of wide set cerulean blue to match. He stood out from the crowd, yet he blended in at the same time; it was strange. I noticed that he was watching the game below us intently without moving a muscle.  
There was something different about him.  
I could feel it.  
The crowd roared as Kise’s team below us scored a point. A three pointer.  
Ah…I thought. I used to play this sport. Basketball.  
It used to be me down there, scoring all the points. I used to be strong…the strongest actually.  
What changed?  
That was a question I constantly asked myself; a question I still had no answer for.  
It’s been a year since that accident; half a year since I finally woke up. My leg was healed long ago. There should be nothing stopping me now.  
My eyes strayed away from the game below me, away from Kise in search of the boy I saw earlier; the one who seemed to be everything opposite of the basketball star shining below us. My eyes swept the crowd, but it was no use. He was no where to be found.  
It was as if he had melted into the shadows.  
I turned my attention back to the game.

 

As I stepped outside, I was faced with a strong gush of the cool winter breeze.  
I turn my face up towards the looming grey clouds up ahead.  
It’s going to snow soon.  
It takes me a while to realize that the voice wasn't in my head and that it didn’t belong to me.  
Sky blue hair.  
Cerulean blue eyes.  
I take a step back in surprise as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  
“ Whoa,” I mutter, stumbling in surprise.  
When he didn’t even acknowledge my presence, I clear my throat, staring at his upturned face with caution.  
He was definitely weird.  
“ Um…were you talking to me?” I ask.  
Then the boy turned to face me, his eyes wide with surprise.  
“ You can see me?”  
Strange question.  
“ Well…yeah,” I say. “ I’m not blind, am I?”  
I felt the boy’s eyes linger on my face before replying.  
“ I didn’t mean it like that,” he murmured, then looked up at the sky once again. “ It’s the first time someone’s been able to see me.”  
I ignored his peculiar response.  
It really should have occurred to me what he meant when he said that.  
“ I saw you earlier. You were watching the game.”  
“ I saw you too,” was his response.  
We fell into a comfortable silence. I checked my watch. Damn, Kise was taking forever.  
“ Who are you waiting for?” I asked the odd blue haired boy.  
“ I don’t know.”  
I was about to ask him what he was doing here then, but I felt a pair of strong arms sling around my shoulder.  
“ Aominecchi~” Kise chants. “ Did you see, did you see? How awesome was I today, huh?”  
I laugh a little, liking the feeling of warmth spreading from Kise to me.  
“ Yeah, you were great.”  
Kise hums contently.  
Neither of us say what was really on our mind.  
_Did you see? How awesome was I today, huh?_  
 _Don’t get cocky, you fool. You wanna go? I’d crush you anytime, any day._  
 _Ehh? You’re so mean Aominecchi._  
That’s how our conversations used to go.  
What changed?  
I changed.  
Why?  
There was no answer.  
I turned to say good bye to the strange blue haired boy, but he was already gone. I didn’t even notice him leave.  
“ What are you looking at?” Kise asks when He noticed me searching my surroundings.  
I tore my eyes away from the spot where the blue haired boy just stood and turned to give Kise a small smile.  
“ Nothing,” I say.  
As Kise herded me towards his car, telling me about the amazing new restaurant he discovered the other day, I think about the stranger I just met.  
I probably wouldn’t ever see him again.  
Probably.

 

It turns out that I was wrong.  
He came to me that night, that boy. I was certainly shocked when I came home to find a strange yet very familiar blue haired silhouette perched upon my bed, patiently waiting for my return.  
“ What the fuck?” I think was the first thing I spluttered.  
The strange boy only acknowledges my return with a small nod and a quiet, “ ah, you’re back.”  
After a series of curses and questions, I managed to get three things out of that boy.  
one: He didn’t know his name.  
Two: He was sure that he was a spirit who died a while ago, and couldn't pass on, since no one could see him or hear him. Other than me, of course.  
Three: He must have some unfinished business left in this world. And he needed my help in passing on.  
I’d be lying if I were to say i wasn’t shocked.  
“ But if you’re a ghost,” I say  
“ Lost Spirit,” The blue ghost corrects me.  
“ If you’re a ghost,” I insist, “ Why aren’t you doing any ghostly things? You know like floating…or scaring the people who’ve made your life miserable in the past.”  
The ghost shakes his head,  
“ You aren’t a very good listener, Aomine- kun,”  
Tha-thump.  
My heart stumbles in a weird rhythm upon hearing my name leave his lips.  
“ I really don’t have any memory of my past life. I don’t remember who I was, or who my friends were. Did I have someone I used to love? Why couldn’t I pass on? What was there left for me to do here?”  
I study the boy for a moment in silence. He holds my gaze for a moment before glancing downwards at his feet.  
“ Ah…what am I doing,” He mumbles to himself, “ asking a stranger for help. I..I’m sorry Aomine-kun, you probably have better things to do with your time.”  
Aomine-kun.  
There it was again. There was something about the way he said my name.  
It felt right. Like a piece of the incomplete puzzle was falling back into place.  
“ Wait,” I say, before I could ponder clearly about what I was thinking. It didn't occur to me that the old Aomine would never have accepted to help a lost spirit. Well, the old Aomine probably would have left the house ages ago if he had discovered it to be haunted.  
But the old Aomine is gone now.  
As I stared at those wide blue eyes of his, I realized something important. Ghost or not, he was just like me.  
Lost.  
“ I’ll help you,” I tell him, “ So stay.”  
And that was the first of many nights that I spent staying up all night chatting with the ghost who’s lost his way.

 

“ Hey Aomine-kun,” the blue haired ghost says one cold winter afternoon.  
“ hmm?” I replied, eyes trained intently on the magazine I was reading.  
“ Basket ball…can you play it?”  
That surprised me. I lowered my magazine to meet the curious gaze of the usually non-talkative ghost. He sat cross legged beside me on the couch, taking up as much space as a medium sized dog. He wore the same white shirt everyday, along with the same black shorts. Even when it was freezing cold outside, he would tell me he was fine, that he couldn’t feel the chilliness.  
“ No,” I lied, turning my attention back to the magazine.  
“ Liar.”  
“ What makes you think I can play?”  
“ I don’t know,” was his response. “ It’s just a feeling. An intuition.”  
I scoffed, “ you can’t get an intuition about these things, idiot.”  
“ Can you play for me?” He asked anyways, persisting. “ I’d like to see you play.”  
I waited for the little voice inside my head to appear, to tell me no, you don’t wan’t to play basketball.  
But it never appeared.  
And then before I knew what was happening, I was already standing beneath a hoop, a ball in my hands. I gently stroked the soft rubber of the ball, remembering what it felt like to dribble it across the court, what it felt like to hear the soft and satisfying swish of the net as the ball flies through.  
I raised my arms and let the ball go. It went soaring in a perfect parabola and straight through the hoop.  
“ Wah, you’re good!” the ghost claps for me, clearly fascinated by that simple shot.

I stared at my hands and waited for the pain that usually follows whenever I touched the ball. I waited to feel that familiar pang of emptiness in my chest, that familiar gaping hole that refuses to close no matter how tightly I try to hold myself together.  
It doesn’t come.  
I stared at the ghost boy in wonder. What was he? Some kind of genie? Some kind of genie who’s presence somehow makes pain go away?  
“ It’s nice,” the ghost murmurs, “ You think I used to play basketball when I was alive?”  
I glance at his short and petite stature and shake my head.  
“ I doubt it.”  
“ Probably not, huh?”

 

“…ko,” the ghost murmurs one night, after I had turned off the lights. I shift in my bed to face the boy with raised eyebrows.  
“ What did you say?”  
“ Kuroko,” he repeats.  
And I swore my heart stopped for a split second.  
I blinked, fazed as my heart resumed it’s normal pace.  
“ It’s..It was my name, I think,” Kuroko tells me quietly, voice far away. “ Kuroko.”  
Kuroko.  
“ Kuroko,” I try.  
“ It’s unfortunate, but it seems that I still can’t remember my first name,” Kuroko sighs into my pillow, his pillow.  
Although I couldn’t explain it, i felt an odd rush of relief spread throughout me. I couldn’t think of a single valid reason as to why I did not want to learn Kuroko’s first name.  
It didn’t make any sense.  
“ Kuroko,” I murmur again, before the darkness consumed me.

 

As days passed, I slowly got used to having Kuroko around. I got used to him to the point where hanging out with even Kise didn’t feel as natural as my time spent with the blue haired ghost.  
“ Aominecchi?” Kise calls, I could hear him pouting even over the phone.  
“ Yeah, yeah, I’m listening,” I say.  
I watched as two little boys ran across the basketball court, ball in hand, laughing as they passed it to one another.  
I smiled.  
What a nice sight.  
“ See?” Kise complains, “ you’re not listening again.”  
“ Sorry,” I apologize.  
“ Are you still not playing?” Kise asks after a moment of silence. “ Basketball, I mean?”  
“ Kise,” I breathe, “ I played. Just for a little while, but I still did. And it didn’t hurt, Kise. It didn't hurt.”  
I heard a sharp little intake of breath on the other line.  
“ That’s amazing, Aominecchi…That’s…”  
I know. It was incredible.  
And it was all because of him.  
Kuroko, the ghost.  
“ Hey,” I say, kicking the pebbles with the sole of my shoe.  
“ Yeah?”  
I hesitated. “ Does the name…Kuroko sound familiar to you?”  
Silence.  
I waited for Kise’s reply, but I never got one.  
“ Uh, I’m sorry, Aominecchi, but it seems that it’s my turn to shoot. I’ll, ah, call you later, alright?”  
“ wait,” I start to say, but Kise hangs up anyways.  
I stare at the phone in confusion as the soft swish and loud cheers me signalled the end of the juvenile game going on beside me.

 

When I came home that day, the first thing I wanted to do was to tell Kuroko about Kise’s odd behaviour. I stepped onto the cold hard wooden floors of my apartment, shivering as the cold seeped through my socks and into my skin. The rooms were dark, lights turned off.  
It was quiet.  
Without understanding why, fear inched it’s way around my heart and clasped hold of it with it’s iron vice grip.  
“ Kuroko?” I called.  
Silence.  
“ Kuroko?” I called again, louder, panic seeping into my voice.  
The answering silence was deafening.  
“ Kuroko?!” I called at the top of my lungs, panic spread throughout my body like a wild fire, tearing at each and every part of me. I rummaged through my entire apartment, searching eery single room. There were only two rooms, so that didn’t take very long.  
Just as I was about to give up, just as I was about to lose it, I heard a faint “ Aomine-kun.”  
I whirled around to see Kuroko standing behind me, eyes wide in alarm.  
“ What’s the matter, Aomine-kun?”  
And then my arms were around him.  
I pulled him close to my chest. He really was a tiny little thing, as he fit snugly between my wide shoulders. I felt my heart race frantically in my chest as trembles shook my entire body.  
I buried my face in his soft blue hair, holding him as tight as I possibly could.  
I felt Kuroko’s arms lace around my back, one hand reaching up to pat my head with reassuring strokes.  
“ It’s okay,” he whispered. “ It’s going to be okay.”  
“ I thought you disappeared,” I rasped, not understanding the tears that were threatening to escape from my eyes. Why did I feel this strongly for him? For the dead boy I held in my arms?  
“ I won’t disappear,” Kuroko tells me, “ I won’t ever disappear unless you wan’t me gone.”  
“ Don’t you ever leave me,” i whispered quietly into the night.

 

“ Hey Kuroko,” I say as we lay lounging on my bed, our bed. Kuroko’s head was rested on my chest as I played with strands of his colourful blue hair.  
“ yes, Aomine-kun?”  
“ Why is it do you think that it’s only me who’s able to see you? There’s so many better…people out there. Why is it me?”  
I felt Kuroko shift against my chest as he twisted his body around so that his chin was rested just above where my heart lies.  
“ Truthfully, I don’t know either,” Kuroko says, also sounding quite confused. He pauses for a moment, then speaks again. “ Why do you think that there are better people out there?”  
For a minute or so, I don’t speak and continue to play with his hair. Kuroko frowns and pries my fingers away from his blue locks.  
“ A year ago…I got into an accident. Car crash. The other driver was clearly drunk, as he came speeding towards me in the wrong lane. It snowing that day. I was rushed into the emergency room and taken to the surgery table right away. That surgery saved my life, but…I never woke up.”  
I feel Kuroko’s hand find it’s way to mine. I smile at the pleasant sensation of his fingers interlocked with mine.  
“ I never woke up,” I continue, “ until about half a year ago. And when I finally escaped from that darkness, escaped from that nightmare, I was met with another: Myself. It never felt right after I woke up, Kuroko; like I wasn’t myself. Like…like I wasn’t whole.”  
Kuroko squeezes my hand in reassurance.  
“ You feel whole to me.”  
“ I feel whole when I’m with you.”  
We fell into a serendipitous silence at that moment. Then I broke the silence with a soft chuckle.  
“ Kise sure did cry a lot when I woke up. He’s always been such a cry baby.”  
“ He sure is.”  
I blink in surprise and rise up from my sleeping position. Kuroko’s head falls off my chest as I stare at him. He stares back with my confusion mirroring in his eyes.  
“ I…” He trails off. “ I don’t know why I agreed to that. I’ve never met Kise-kun.”  
Kise-kun.  
The way he says kise’s name also sounds strange.  
Nostalgic.  
Silence again.  
Kuroko looks outside the window where the night sky reflects a deep chilling dark blue, decorated with the twinkling lights of the busy city below us.  
“ It looks like it’s going to snow soon.”  
“ It does.”

 

 

“ Hey Kuroko.”  
“ Yes, Aomine-kun?”  
“ What do you think will happen when you remember who you are?”  
Silence.  
“ I don’t know… If I remember who I was, I’ll remember what it was that I stayed here for. I’ll be able to pass on.”  
“ I don’t want you to leave.”  
Kuroko kisses my forehead gently.  
“ I don’t want to leave you either.”  
“ Then don’t leave. Hey, Kuroko, promise me you won’t leave?”  
Gentle fingers touch my face.  
“ I promise.”

 

 

_Snowflakes fall gently from the sky._   
_Heavy silence fills the air with tension._   
_I look over to the person in the shot gun seat by my side._   
_“ I still don’t know where you’re taking me,” the person says, breaking the silence. “ Why are bringing me somewhere when you’ve made it clear the other day that I mean nothing to you?”_   
_I don’t answer._   
_“ This has to stop, Aomine-kun. You care about me, or you don’t care about me. It’s either or. We can’t keep continuing like this—whatever this is.”_   
_“ Just wait till we get there,” was my answer._   
_“ I don’t want to. Bring me home right now.”_   
_Frustration._   
_“ God, you can be such a—-“_   
_“ Aomine-kun! Look out!”_   
_Bright lights._   
_A loud honk._   
_Skidding of tires._   
_A loud crash._   
_Darkness._   
_And the snow continues to fall._

_“ His vital signs are falling! He’s going into cardiac arrest!”_   
_“ Step back! Three hundred fifty watts! Stand by—clear!”_   
_“Vital signs aren’t returning to normal.”_   
_“ He needs a heart transplant right now!”_   
_“ But we don’t have—-“_   
_“ The other victim. Check the other victim for a blood match.”_   
_“ Victim is blood type O.”_   
_“ Prepare for heart transplant right now.”_

My eyes snap open and I lurch forward, sweating buckets of cold sweat. My mind reels as I tried to piece together my broken dream. I dreamt of the day of that accident. I was sure about that.  
But…I wasn’t alone on that day?  
Who was I with?  
Who else was there?  
Who….is it that I can’t remember?  
“ It’s snowing,” a voice says.  
I turn slowly to face the silhouette standing by the window looking over the city. Kuroko turns to face me with a small smile on his face.  
And then I knew.  
It was him.  
Kuroko was the one in my dream. The one with me on the day of my accident.  
But who was Kuroko?  
Kuroko looks down at his feet and smiles again. His next words make me turn cold.  
“ I’ve remembered who I am.”  
No.  
He can’t.  
I didn’t understand, but a part of me remembers him too. And that part of me was screaming at me to not remember everything. Because if I remembered everything, it was going to hurt.  
“ Stop,” I whisper in a shaking voice. “ Stop, please.”  
“ Aomine-kun—“  
“ Don’t!” I shout, “ Don’t say my name, don’t tell me your name…don’t… let me remember.”  
Kuroko steps towards me and takes my hands.  
“ But you have to remember one day,” he whispers. “ I have to move on…You have to move on.”  
“ Shut up,” I spit through gritted teeth. “ I don’t want to see you right now, go away.”  
“ Aomine Kun—“  
“ Go away!”  
The absence of his hands around mine felt so outlandish. So strange.  
I take a deep breath and take in the now very empty room. I reach for my phone and dial number 1 on speed dial. He picks up on the first ring.  
“ Kise, come out,” I say. “ We need to talk.”

 

I stare at the tiny box I held in my hands. I remember now.  
I remember everything.

Kise was already at the cafe when I had arrived. He didn’t greet me brightly like he usually would. He knew, I realized. He knew what I called him out for.  
“ Aominecchi,” Kise greeted me with a small smile.  
“ Kise,” I said.  
We sat there for a while, enjoying the snowy view outside.  
“ It’s beautiful,” Kise whispered.  
“ It is.”  
Silence again.  
“ Kise…I think I’m going crazy,” i choked, letting my face fall into my hands. “ The day of the accident…Was I alone?”  
I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it anyway.  
“ No,” Kise confirmed.  
“ Kuroko,” I whispered in agony, “ Who is Kuroko?”  
Kise fell silent for a moment, but then I felt his arms go around me, pulling me close.  
“ Let’s start from the beginning then, shall we?”

 

He was my friend.  
My best friend.  
He was the person I cared about the most in the world.  
He was in the car with me when I got into the accident, except for him, it was an instant death. I woke up six months later, he never did.  
He gave me his heart.  
He gave me life.  
And when I woke up six months later, the pain of losing him was too much for me to bear. When I woke up six months later after that accident and realized that I never got to say goodbye, I had wished that it were me instead. When I woke up six months later, I wished I had never woken up. At least in the darkness, I was free from the pain.  
So my brain did the only thing thinkable to save me from that pain.

“ The doctors said that it was best to leave you be…That you would only relapse if you ever recalled who he was. So I cleaned your apartment and took out everything that would remind you of him.”

I erased every single memory I had with him. Every touch, every hello, every good bye.  
And then the pain was gone.  
But whenever I picked up a basketball, whenever I held what I used to love the most in my hands, the pain would come back. I understand what that pain was now.  
It was a warning.  
A warning that if I ever played basketball again, if I ever touched a ball again, my memories with him would be triggered.  
Scenes from the past flash before my eyes as I got up from my seat at the now empty cafe.  
“ Aomine-kun, lend me your strength.”  
The first game we’ve ever played together.  
_Kuroko Tetsuya._  
I walk outside the cafe.  
“ Aomine-kun, you’re the light to my shadow. I’ll always be supporting you.”  
When we became partners.  
_Kuroko Tetsuya._  
I walk faster.  
“ Fist bump. You still owe me that fist bump you never returned.”  
When I lost to him for the first time.  
Him.  
_Kuroko._  
 _Kuroko Tetsuya._  
I start to run.  
“ I found this in your pocket, after the accident,” Kise had said.  
He handed me a small velvet box.  
Inside were two silver rings.  
I grip the velvet box tightly in my hand.  
And then I was running, running down the busy streets, running towards him.  
_Tetsu._

 

I slammed the door open with a loud bang.  
“ Kuroko!” I cried.  
No answer.  
“ Kuroko, come out! I didn’t mean it when I told you to go away!”  
Still nothing.  
“ Please…”  
What if he was gone? What if he had left after remembering who he was? What if he had passed on?  
…No.  
He wouldn’t leave.  
He promised that he would never leave me.  
And Kuroko Tetsuya always keeps his promises.  
So where did he go?  
Then, a place came to mind.  
“ He wouldn’t be there… would he?”

 

 

Teiko middle school stood tall and proud in the midst of the fields spotted with snow.  
I hear the faint sound of a dibbling basket ball in the distance. I turn to follow the sound.  
I smile as I walk past my old school, reminiscing in the memories of hot summer days, and the sweet taste of convenience store popsicles.  
And then I saw him.  
He dribbles the ball across the court and sends it flying towards the hoop. It flies through the net with a fhwoosh.  
“ You’ve gotten better at shooting,” I tell him.  
Kuroko glances up and meets my gaze, his expression unreadable. Then he wipes his face with the black sweat band on his wrist.  
“ I learned from a great teacher.”  
I don’t say anything as I just allowed my eyes to drift over each and every feature of his face. The sparkling cerulean blue of his big and wide eyes, how his nose arches in a delicate fashion above the smooth white planes of his face.  
Ah, I think. I really do miss him.  
I missed him a lot.  
“ Hey Aomine kun,” Kuroko says taking a step towards me. “ Do you remember my name now? My full name?”  
I shake my head.  
“ No,” I lie.  
Kuroko frowns that tiny frown of disapproval I had grown to love.  
“ Please don’t lie, Aomine-kun. You always avert your eyes when you lie.”  
I take a deep breath, and summon what was left of my courage.  
“ I remember.”  
“ What’s my name?”  
“ Kuroko Tetsuya,” I say.  
Kuroko closes his eyes, the trace of a faint smile paints his lips.  
“ Call me the way you used to call me? Please, Aomine-kun? One more time?” Kuroko takes another step towards me. Now we were only inches apart.  
And yet, it felt like I was going to lose him at any second.  
My heart races in my chest, I scream the name again and again in my head. yet, when I spoke, my voice came out a haggard croak; a heart broken whisper.  
“ Tetsu,” I whisper. “ Tetsu.”  
Kuroko smiles upon hearing this. He glances at our surroundings.  
“ You know, I figured it out; Where you were taking me that day of the accident,” Kuroko tells me. He turns and meets my eyes once again. “ It was here. Teiko. This gym…this basket ball court. It’s where we first met, isn’t it?”  
Pain seizes my heart as I look away from Kuroko’s earnest gaze. I nod.  
“ Why did you want to take me here?” Kuroko asks, reaching out to take my hands. I watch as his hands close around mine as they have done multiple times before, except this time…  
I feel nothing.  
I stare at Kuroko’s hand clearly enclosed around mine.  
But I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel him.  
I glanced up in shock.  
“ I..I can’t feel..” I stutter stupidly.  
Kuroko glances downwards.  
“ Ah…It’s almost time for me to go,” he says quietly.

  
_...No._  
  
“ Why were you going to take me here?” Kuroko asks again, persisting anyways. His eyes turns soft when he notices my trembling shoulders. “ Please, Aomine kun…I don’t have much time left.”  
I squeeze my eyes shut and think about the first time I saw him standing int his very gym. I think about how we played basketball together throughout all these years. I think about how I abandoned him and broke off our partnership and how it was probably one of the greatest regrets of my life.  
My hands travel to the pocket of my pants and I pull out the box.  
Kuroko’s eyes widened as I held it up to him.  
“ I was going to bring you here and tell you how sorry I was,” I say. “ I was going to tell you exactly how much I cared, because, dear god Tetsu, I care about you so much. I was going to tell you that I loved you, that I would have done anything for you; that I love you more and more everyday, and it’s because I love you that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”  
Kuroko was silent for a moment as he took it all in. His face blurred and I realized that I was crying. Tears streamed down my face as I held the box in my hand. When was the last time that I cried?  
Then he takes a step forward on his tippy toes and plants a soft and sweet kiss on my lips.  
I couldn’t feel it, but my heart did.  
“ yes,” Kuroko whispers. “ That’s what I would have said. That’s what I still say now. Put it on for me, will you?”  
I did as I was told.  
The ring fit him perfectly.  
“ My final request,” Kuroko says. “ The reason why I couldn’t pass on, the words I weren’t able to say…will you listen to them?”  
I didn’t want to. If I did, he would have no reason to stay.  
I’d be alone again.  
“ Tetsu,” I say frantically, pulling his hand, “ tell me tomorrow, huh? Let’s go home now.”  
But Kuroko only shakes his head.  
“ My home is wherever you are, Aomine-kun. Im home right now.”  
“ You promised,” I blurted, voice cracking. “ You promised you would never leave me.”  
Kuroko was quiet for a moment before he rested a hand on my chest.  
My heart thumped loud and hard in my chest.  
A steady rhythm, like the bouncing of a basket ball.  
“ Do you feel that, Aomine-kun?” Kuroko asks. “ That’s the sound of my heart beating in your chest. That’s the reason you felt that you weren’t yourself all this time. You never noticed, have you? I never left you for a second. Even when…even when I died, my heart still stayed with you. And it always will.”  
He looks up then, a determined expression fixed upon his face.  
“ It will work hard to give you life, give you strength. I’m going to work hard to give you strength,” Kuroko pauses and smiles. A smile of peace, tinged with a petal of sadness.  
“ So will you listen to my words now?”  
By then, I couldn’t even see his face anymore. Tears clouded my vision and I blinked them away.  
“ yes,” I whispered.  
There was a small pause. Kuroko then opened his eyes and smiled.  
“ I love you,” Kuroko says.  
“ I love you, Aomine kun. I’ve always loved you. I loved you ten years ago when you told me you would play basketball with me, I even loved you when you threw me aside to play in isolation. I love you now,”  
He pauses to kiss me.  
Once, twice.  
“ —and I’ll love you even when Im gone.”  
Hot tears spill once again, as I hold him close to me, as tight as I could.  
“ I’m so sorry,” I sob, clenching at his shirt. “ I shouldn’t have taken you that day. I shouldn’t have made you worry. Im sorry…”  
Kuroko shakes his head.  
“ No, Aomine-kun. Don’t be sorry. I don’t blame you. It was an accident.”  
“ I really hate good byes,” I wheeze. “ So I’m not going to say any.”  
“That’s okay,” Kuroko says. “ We always communicated the best through basketball anyways. So what do you say, Aomine kun? One last game?”  
“ One on one?”  
“ Something like that.”  
Kuroko kisses my tears away.  
“ You can’t beat me, though,” I say.  
Kuroko only smiles and holds up the ball.  
And then I understood.  
Tetsu didn’t want to play me to win.  
He was saying good bye.  
I lower into a ready stance and I see something shift in his eyes. I expected him to do his vanishing drive, but to my surprise, he only passes the ball to me.  
“ One last game,” he says.  
So I turn around and I shoot. _One last game_

The ball leaves my fingers, and soars across the gym.  
I feel a soft and warm breeze sweep past me, embracing my entire body.

_Take good care of my heart._   
_Good bye, I love you._

Swish! The ball passes cleanly through the net at the opposite end of the court.  
I just stood there for a while. A second? A minute? An hour? An eternity? I just stood there.  
I stood there because I was afraid. I was afraid to turn around and see an empty court.  
But I do anyway.  
Slowly.  
And at the spot where the blue haired boy whom I loved stood was one silver ring, shining brightly against the dusty hue of an empty basketball court.  
Tears prick my eyes as I smile against the pain.  
“ Good bye,” I whisper. “ I love you, too.”

 

Winter came and left, and before I knew it, spring had come. Pink blossoms bloomed on the trees that were once bare and laden with snow.  
“ Aominecchi! Wait for me, jesus,” Kise complains as I trek ahead.  
I laugh, a sound I was still getting used to hearing.  
“ You’re slow, Kise. Now hurry up, you idiot.”  
I hear him grumble behind me, muttering incoherent words as we made our way to where Tetsu lied.  
“ It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Kise says, placing the flowers down before his grave.  
“ It has,” I agree.  
We fall silent as we listened to the birds chirping nearby, the wind blows on the tree branches, swaying them in a gentle dance.  
“ Hey Tetsu,” I say, “ You won’t believe it, but that ass— Kagami actually made it over seas playing basketball. He tells me to say hello. Midorima made it into medical school. Somehow, I always knew he would get ahead of all of us. Kise here is a big shot model now. He hardly lives in the same world as us anymore. Akashi just came to visit you the other day, he’s a teacher now. I know, can you believe it? Akashi as a teacher? He’d probably make all his students piss their pants.”  
Kise chuckles and agrees with me.  
“ As for me, I’m playing basketball again. I’ve made a deal with Kagami. He’s somehow gotten ahead of me, but I’ll catch up soon enough.”  
I take a deep breath and stretch out my fist, gently tapping it on his tombstone.  
“ Wish us good luck?”  
Kise takes my hand and offers me a bright smile.  
“ Shall we go?”  
I nod.  
As I turn to leave, I feel the wind suddenly shift, blowing a swirl of pink petals in my direction.  
I paused.  
“ Hey, I’ll catch up later, alright?” I tell Kise. He nods and smiles and understanding smile before leaving me alone in front of his grave.  
Hesitantly, I spoke.  
“ Are…are you here?”  
No answer.  
But then, the sun seemed to shine a little brighter as the shadows beneath the trees danced with the wind.  
I smile.  
“ Hey, Tetsu,” I say. “ I miss you.”  
The warm spring breeze blows softly in my face once again and I hear his reply in the winds.  
_Don’t miss me, Aomine-kun, because I’m right here._

 

end~


End file.
